The Influence of Sor Juana and Catalina de Erauso on Colonial Latin American Society

In Spain and the Spanish colonies in South America in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, gender roles were distinct and the opportunity gap was enormous. Catalina de Erauso compares the two roles through her memoir, “Lieutenant Nun,” where she recounts her life as a transvestite in both the new and old world. Through having experienced the structured life of a woman as well as the freedom involved in being a man, de Erauso formed an identity for herself that crossed the boundaries of both genders. Catalina de Erauso’s life demonstrates the gap in freedom and opportunity for women, as compared to men, in the areas of culture, politics and economy, and religion.

Matthew Restall, a Professor of Latin American History, Women’s Studies, and Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. He also serves the Director of the university’s Latin Studies. Throughout “Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest,” he discusses many false truths that have been passed down through history. For instance, he discusses, “The Myth of Exceptional Men.” “The Myth of Spanish Army,” and “The Myth of Completion.” For the sake of time, I will discuss three myths that correlate with class lectures and serve as the topic of this paper, “The Myth of Exceptional Men,” “The Myth of the King’s Army,” and the “Myth of the White Conquistador.” It should be noted that Restall speaks to his audience assuring us that his “...his purpose is not to degenerate this technique of historical writing completely...Nor do I mean to create a narrative in which individual action is utterly subordinated to the larger structural forces and causes of social change.” (4). He states that his intentions are to react to more than just the works of Columbus, Pizzaro, and Cortez.

For decades, the history of Latin America has been shrouded in a cover of Spanish glory and myth that misleads and complicates the views of historians everywhere. Myths such as the relationship between natives and conquistadors, and the individuality of the conquistadors themselves stand as only a few examples of how this history may have become broken and distorted. However, in Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest Matthew Restall goes to great lengths to dispel these myths and provide a more accurate history of Latin American, in a readable and enjoyable book.

Thesis statement: Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their lives. Some are actively trying to change things on their own. Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros’ shows not only the hardships women face, but also explores their power to overcome them.

1). The Nations of Europe sought to expand their empire because they were on the verge of overpopulation.Between 1550 and 1600 the population grew from three million to four million people. Also, England and Spain were at a war for power. The Spanish attempts at colonizing the New World had been extremely successful, for they had gained both wealth and power. The English did not see such success, as their ships would crash, be lost to the seas, or their colonization efforts would cease to be useful. Through the Spaniards control over the Americas they had gained a massive naval army, noted as the Spanish Armada. The Spanish attempt to invade England in 1588 failed which lead to the beginning of the fall of the Spanish empire in the New World.

Catalina de Erauso’s memoir, Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World, depicts gender relations in the early 17th century Spain. Erauso, through her detailed narrative of personal encounters with transvestism, reveals significant implications of the roles and expectations of the gender binary during this era. Her memoir evidently portrays gender binaries in dress, emotion, and interaction within society as she describes aspects of her journey from the perspective of both a woman and man. The male gender exhibits idealized masculine qualities, such as being violent and spontaneous, and the female gender exhibits idealized feminine qualities, such as emotional suppression and tranquility. Erauso expresses the distinct

Negotiating Conquest is a scholarly work written by Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, which analyzes women 's roles in history, and discusses how the political system has affected their roles. It covers the period between the 1770 's to the 1880 's, the periods before and after American Conquest. Likewise, this book is divided into two sections, chapters 1-3 discusses "Women in Spanish and Mexican California," and chapters 4-6 discusses "Women in American California." This work analyzes the major ideas present within each period and how it affected women 's roles and power. The time and effort put into this book, is something that the author enjoyed, calling it a "labor of love." Overall, she then claims that her purpose in writing this work is to, "honor and recognize woman of all ethnic backgrounds, social classes, and regions, who established households, nurtured and reared families, and rose above personal adversity in societies that often ignored, overlooked, and rendered them invisible."

Not only did these women find a place in society other than by the stove, they won the appreciation and respect of men and women around them. Two of the most extraordinary of these women were Dolores Jimenez y Muro, who was an important political writer, and Hermila Galindo, who was a political speaker and advocate for Carranza’s campaign and regime. Dolores Jimenez y Muro's importance is evident in how she was able to have her voice heard and listened to by high-ranking revolutionary officials. Hermila Galindo's prominence is shown by her distinguished political career and feminist movements.

The situation of women in the pre-Columbian era was like any other culture because men had power. The woman lacked rights, equality and autonomy. Often, women were treated as an object. In the case of one of the most developed pre-Columbian civilizations, the Aztecs, a situation occurred with the rights of women with Dona Marina, also known as the Malinche. She was a girl of the Aztec culture, who after a clash between tribes was surrender as a slave, because that was the tradition of those times. “Later, Malinche was again ceded as a slave, but this time to Hernan Cortes by the cacique of Tabasco, along with 19 other women, some pieces of another and a set of blankets” (Castillo, 2014). Afterwards, Hernan Cortes learned that Malinche spoke several languages and did not hesitate to use her as an interpreter in order to unite alliances with the indigenous peoples conquered by the Aztecs, thus facilitating the conquest of the empire.

Premo uses most of the first half of the book to develop her analysis on this theme. On a general level, Premo explains that the law in colonial Lima, “… was, by definition, an interaction between the written and the real,” meaning that the written laws that legislated government power also developed social laws regarding family structures. Premo first presents the systems of the household. She explains the paternal roots of the legal definition of minors made by the Spanish American judges. In addition, minors were legally obligated subordinate to their fathers until the age of twenty-five, giving fathers complete control over the household deep into their maturation.

These high levels of finances sprung from the growing presence of several different kinds of women in the Spanish colonies of Latin America. One of these types of women were called the mestizas. The mestizas were the children born of both Spaniard fathers and Andean mothers. As the mestizas approached the age at which they were capable of getting pregnant, their fathers placed these young women in a convent. And, instead of their dowries being given to a suitable mate, with the intentions of marrying them, they were given to the convent. In exchange, these young women would become nuns, take an oath of chastity, and would be of no threat to the Spanish lineage of their fathers. Increasing population numbers also sprung from the presence of women who were in unfortunate situations, to whom these convents served as a safe haven. For instance, “the nuns of Cuzco […] took in women who sought shelter from violent marriages” (pg.118). Thus, as a result, “women whose husbands beat them might take refuge in the cloisters” (pg.

Each scene depicts a man and a women and their offspring, accompanied by a label identifying each person by a casta category to reflect their degree of racial mixing. As we begin to examine the series of Casta paintings by the artist José de Alcíbar from the second half of the 18th century we explore the relationship between visual and textual depictions of colonial space. In the Series of 16, No. 1: Spaniard and Indian produce a Mestizo, we see that the Spaniard is depicted as a white male, the Indian as a dark woman, and the child as a white Mestizo. As stated before, the whiter one is the higher prestige they have as well as an economic and social equality. The way they are labeled also demonstrates the hierarchy that keep the criollos at the top.

'' The Spanish and Portuguese significantly impacted the new world '', is an unequivocal statement which fosters a sense of unanimity within the historical sphere. The dispersal of Catholicism, the establishment of Spanish and Portuguese colonization, and their salient role in the ''Age of Discovery'' testifies to the impeachable statement that, indeed, they did substantially impact the Americas. The word impact possesses multiple meanings and is often used interchangeable, however within this historical context it can be defined as an influence and effect as well as the force exerted by a new idea, concept, technology, or ideology (dictionary.com). The prevailing ideology during this period was of an imperialistic nature, the attainment

By the late eighteenth century, the New World, which was still remote, had formed its own complicated individual and national identities. Moreover, the disparate communities within Latin America had established a unique culture characterized by its hybridity. A close reading of Ignacio de Castro’s From Spaniard and Indian, a Mestizo is born and Agostino Brunias’s Planter and His Wife with a Servant reveals the racial hierarchy that formed amid Latin America’s hybridity. Additionally, both objects specifically express Latin American hybridity for a white, European class, likely as a means to demystify and boost the standing of the New World. Deceivingly similar in terms of style and subject, as both contain three figures of varying cultural

Throughout the course of the last couple of weeks, we were assigned a finite list of readings that enveloped in us writing responses to said readings, along with the occasional showing of periodic movies that encompassed what we had learned in Latin America. These readings and movies helped shed light on problems ravaging the newly found colonies for instance; in “Camila”, the main protagonist was Camila who lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 19th century when Rosas was governor and a very prominent Caudillo. She fell in love with a pastor and they eloped, prompting Rosas and Camila’s father, Adolfo, to hunt them down and ultimately execute them for disobeying, even though Camila was 8 months pregnant. In “The Last Supper”, the story took